posts tagged as: diet
5 SIMPLE HEALTH GEMS THAT GIVE BIG RESULTS
Photo by Tracy Morford from the Suzanne Rae 2011 S/S collection
In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it's important to remember that it's the things we do daily that make a big difference in the way we look and feel. There are many simple habits that when implemented help keep the body healthy, lean, energetic and clear.
1) Keep food that is on your 'avoid' list out of your house. It's much more tempting to reach for an unhealthy food choice if it is in your cupboards than if you have to travel to get it.
2) Keep a NO SHOE rule in your house: Most toxins are brought into our homes from outside. Toxins are held in fat cells. The less toxic your body, the easier it is to have a lean body.
3) Eat your last meal 3 hours before bedtime: This habit will improve your sleep, digestion and allow your body to cleanse. You will wake up feeling brighter and fresher in the morning.
4) Start your morning of with a glass of hot water: The body gets dehydrated at night. Drinking hot water in the morning will help with elimination and replenish you while your stomach is empty.
5) Give yourself at least 5 minutes of silence daily: Being centered in yourself brings relaxation and reduces effects of stress. Turn the cell phone, ipod and computer off and sit or lay down in a quiet space.
posted monday, may 23, 2011 by dr. karuna
tagged as: diet, health, stress, silence
Bye Bye Winter Blah's
Guess what? It's snowing again. It's the Winter that just keeps giving... While living in a real-life snow globe is beautiful, it could be even better if we felt fabulous and clear of the “winter blues”. The cold months require us to learn how to work with both the indoor dry heat, outdoor dry cold or outdoor damp cold.
Here are a few simple strategies on treating yourself well during the blistery season; and getting rid of those chapped lips, dry skin, and general 'blah' feeling.
HYDRATION: Add a little fresh non citrus juice to your water to add electrolyte content and drink more liquids if you are in heated rooms most of the day. Try to drink your liquids warm. Drink soups and broths. Limit dehydrating foods/drinks such as dried fruits, green tea, caffeine beverages, spicy food, and alcohol.
FOOD: One favorite winter food is stewed pears. Pears are lubricating to the lungs and hydrating.
MOVEMENT: Make the extra effort to take the stairs, take a dance break or walk an extra block. It will make a big difference in that 'stuck' feeling and will warm you up.
SKIN: Apply olive oil to your lips at bedtime. This will leave your lips supple upon waking. Other edible oils work well too. Look into taking internal oils for your constitution, these will hydrate, replenish and nourish you.
WELLNESS: Keep your neck covered even when you think the weather is a 'balmy' 30 degrees outside. Wind and cold entering through the back of the neck can get you sick quickly. Keep your neck covered indoors as well if your heater is turned down.
LIGHT: Many people suffer from a deepening melancholy as winter descends. An important way to deal with this is to expose yourself to light 'first' thing in the morning everyday. This will reset your natural rhythms. Get outside, even if it's cloudy, for only 5 minutes. In addition, invest in full spectrum light bulbs and larger 'sunlight' lamps. Sit in front of the lamp for 5 minutes first thing in the morning and have them on in your work place during daylight hours. Look into Vitamin D supplementation.
posted tuesday, february 1, 2011 by dr. karuna
tagged as: diet, winter blah cures, winter
Beat The Summer Heat
Because the 'Be Cool' tips were such a hit and here in NYC we are still living in a 'sauna' most of the time – here are more tricks to beating the summer heat.
Remember that the answer to cooling off doesn't always mean eating 'cold' foods. With humidity on the rise, prevent dampness, sluggishness and that 'blah' feeling through other creative ways to stay 'cool'.
Reduce foods that increase heat in the body such as cheese, tomatoes, raw onions, alcohol and lamb.
Also remember that you do not want your body to get too 'cold' if you spend the majority of your time in an air conditioned space, or run 'cold' most of the time.
Enjoy the rest of your Summer!
- Dr. Karuna
BE COOL.... TAKE TWO:
Peppermint Soap: Peppermint is not only cooling when taken internally, it also cools the body when applied to the body externally. Dr. Bronner's Peppermint soap is my favorite, it cools the body down a few degrees, works as a mild insect repellent and a little goes a long way.
Chrysanthemum Tea: This is a great flower tea to use for cooling the body internally and heat symptoms such as tension headaches and throbbing gums. This tea can also counteract the heat from over consumption of fried food and barbecued foods.
Peppermint Tea: Similarly to above, peppermint tea helps to cool internal heat and can be prepared hot or cold.
Pomegranate Juice or Grape Juice: Get straight pomegranate juice and/or grape juice and add a splash to your water bottle. This will add to the electrolyte content on 'sweaty' days, and give you tasty flavored 'cooling' water without the high sugar content of drinking juice alone.
Ice Packs: Heat headaches are a common complaint during the hot months of the year. A very simple and effective way to reduce not only your headache symptoms, but to cool you off quickly is to place an ice pack on the top of your head. If you dont have a ice pack on hand a pack of frozen peas or blueberries will suffice.
Spices: Many spices naturally bring 'warmth' to our body. Two spices that naturally bring 'cool' to the body are CORIANDER and FENNEL. Use these when cooking your Summer dishes.
posted sunday, july 25, 2010 by dr. karuna
tagged as: diet, sumner heat, cooling foods, health
Diet Right!
Spring is here and Summer is right around the corner, which means... it's almost bathing suit season!
Karuna and I were asked to write an article for a modern Indian magazine out of Hong Kong for their recent beauty issue. A portion of this article was me interviewing Karuna on healthy and effective weight loss.
I thought we would share it here with you in celebration and preparation for the upcoming sunny summer season of swimsuit wear.
Trinity Rose: What do you think is the most important thing about style, health, beauty and their connection to one another?
Dr. Sabnani:
Who are you?
Most of us do not know, and yet it is the most important question we can ask ourselves. Beauty and health are about that exploration of who we are, and how we can bring that exploration out as the art of our lives. Living holistically means being able to be yourself completely. Our patterns, behaviors, food preferences, body type, haircut, radiance of our skin and style are all reflections of how we feel inside.
Beauty comes naturally when all of who you are is integrated, from what you eat, to what you wear. It's about congruence; learning who you are and expressing it, inside and out, skin to bones. It's powerful to feel good and look good. Get this down and you will glow!
TR: You have told me before that the gut and its function is key in beauty and weight loss. Can you talk a bit about what that means?
Dr. Sabnani: When you have strong digestion you feel cleaner and look better. Oftentimes, people feel heavier when they are experiencing bloating, constipation or water retention. These symptoms can easily be resolved when you find out the cause of why you are having these problems and teach them what foods to eat and when to eat them. Sometimes, it's really about learning a few simple, specific principles that work for you, and consistently applying them in your daily life. Once that framework is created, you actually enjoy more freedom in you food choices and can get rid of the deprivation and calorie counting diets.
When you are absorbing everything you eat and eliminating everything you don't need, you are clearing your blood. A natural result of this is an overall radiance, clear skin and a lean body.
TR: One of the things I like about the way you work is how you design custom protocols based on an individual's lifestyle (so it really works for them) and takes into account their whole health history. Can you tell us why you do that and what the benefits of working that way are in relationship to beauty and weight loss?
Dr. Sabnani: There are many different causes of why a person can be experiencing a symptom, including weight gain and inability to lose weight. When the cause of a problem is found, specific suggestions can be made for the best long term results.
For example, thyroid disease has been on the rise. If your thyroid gland, which runs the metabolism in the body, is sluggish, you will have trouble losing weight and crave more simple sugars to give you energy. This is the first thing to check in unexplained weight gain, as treating the thyroid problem can easily take off your excess weight, give you energy and allow you to eat the same amount of food you usually eat and still stay lean.
When I get the entire health history, one thing I can see are the patterns of what a person's habits have been their entire life. I get to see what the person likes to eat and what the person does not like to eat. This allows me to include some of their favorite foods into their program, to make their program fit comfortably in their lifestyle. Life is about pleasure, not about deprivation or starving on any level!
I evaluate the emotional, mental, physical and spiritual health and a lifestyle of a patient and how they all fit together. Where you live, work, your relationships, your ethnic background and so forth all have a piece in your overall health, weight and beauty.
Most people think that weight loss is a struggle, hard, temporary and consists of intense restricted diet and over-the-top exercising. While food and exercise will always be key to weight, they are not the only factors to consider. I have seen people making changes in their living situation/space, intimate relationships, and/or spiritual practice and seen dramatic changes in their overall image and weight.
TR: What are the downfalls when nutritionalists, trainers or doctors try and cookie cut people into one mold, and give everyone the same weight-loss protocol?
You have to know what is healthy for 'you', there is no one healthy food or lifestyle for everyone, it's what is right for you at this time. There is no such thing as a healthy food, someone's medicine can be another's poison. Health and beauty come when you live the life which is right for you. The key is to find what this is and live it.
We are all very different in our constitution and our needs. A person working on Wall Street can have very different needs than a Stay-At-Home Mother. When we are all so different, how can we have one strict program for everyone? It doesn't make sense and it doesn't work in the long run. The downfall with cookie-cutting people is the people have trouble keeping up with their program and often feel defeated and catapult back into old patterns.
The MOST IMPORTANT thing is to have ease in your protocol and in your life. This creates long lasting results.
When you follow guidelines that fit who you are, the struggle is gone and weight loss is easy. This is key! People can enjoy a lot of different delicious foods once they learn why a certain food is good for them specifically or not. Most people are happy to give up all their granola bars, trail mix, soy milks and other media driven health foods for ones that they really enjoy.
TR: Can you please share some general tips and principles to start achieving healthy weight?
Dr. Sabnani:
Weight Loss Tips:
1) Exercise: Every little bit counts. Pick a daily exercise you enjoy. Incorporate exercise into your regular work schedule making it a point of parking a few blocks away from your car, walking an extra few blocks to get to your subway, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, etc.. Take a short walk before you eat and after you eat to assist digestion. Do Yoga postures that involve spinal twists to work the digestion. Exercise is the MOST beneficial when done 6am-10am.
2) Times to eat: Eat your biggest meal at lunch time between 12-2pm. Eat a lighter breakfast if eating before 10am. Ideally, try not to eat 3 hours before bed or after dark as often as possible.
3) Foods to Reduce or Eliminate: Avoid leftovers, processed foods, pasta, rice, potatoes, cheese, breads, yogurt, butter, deep sea fish, fatty meats, cakes, pastries, cookies, biscuits, milk, nuts, saturated fats and oils, fried foods and other fatty or heavy foods
4) Drinks: Start your morning with a glass of hot water or herbal tea and drink hot water throughout the day. Do not drink cold liquids generally and especially don't drink cold liquids during or after exercise to keep your metabolic fire high. REMOVE or reduce: carbonated drinks, juice, beer and keep other drinks besides water to a minimum.
5) Portion size: Practice eating at less at each meal and always stop eating before you feel stuffed.
6) Sleep: No lying down for 1 hour after eating during the day or sleeping on a full stomach at any time.
7) Foods to Include: Foods with fiber. Green vegetables. Lean meat. Fruit in moderation. Avoid anything that you notice cause you constipation. Pick foods that are in season as much as possible. You can ask your grocers what is fresh. When you are feeling adventurous, try new and unusual vegetables and fruits.
8) Lifestyle not Diet: Remember that staying lean and fit is a lifestyle and not a 'fad' diet. Relaxing into something that works for 'you' is key. Find a general regimen that you can stick with easily, or see a professional to design a program that is for you and your body's unique needs.
